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In article <clcm-19990714-0004@plethora.net>, cyberian bear wrote:

We're glad to help, but please don't crosspost into every group with C
in its name, and try to write clean code because that's easier to read.

>i have written program which collects marital status and income of 5 people
>and computes their tax. in this prog i had to use a for loop and array.
>basically i got most of it but when i execute it asks me for marital status
>of first person than his income tehn it skips over marital status of second
>person and goes straight to his income, the same happend with 3rd 4th 5th
>person. if any1 could please tell me wehre my mistake is i would be very
>greatefull to You
>Paul
>
>/*Filename:tax604.c
>program which calculates taxes paid for 5 people */
> #include<stdio.h>
> int index;
> char marital_stat[5];
> float income[5];

You should only use global variables when absolutely necessary. Also,
the above declarations give you two arrays indexed 0--4 (see below).

> main()

This will probably be illegal soon. Use int main(void)

> {
> introduction();
> getting_the_info();

The functions above have not been declared at this point.
main() returns int, so:
return 0;

> }
>
>
> /*The following are functions used in this program*/
>/*-------------------------------------------------------------------------*
>/
>introduction()

Use int introduction(void)

>{printf("\t\t\t\tTAX PROGRAM\n\t\t\t   BY \n\n");
>printf("\t\t\t\tINSTRUCTIONS:\n");
>printf("\t\t     1.ENTER ANNUAL SALARY FOR A PERSON.\n");
>printf("\t\t     2.ENTER MARITAL STATUS OF A PERSON.\n");
>printf("\t\t\t   3.REPEAT WHEN PROMPTED.\n\n");
> return;

Make that return 0;

> }
>
>/*------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
>getting_the_info()

int getting_the_info(void)

>{ index=1;

That's redundant; it happens again on the next line.

>for (index=1; index<=5; index++)

You probably meant index<5 (see below)

>{printf("\nPlease enter the marital status of person # ");
>printf("%d ==>", index);
> scanf("%c", &marital_stat[index]);

By the last iteration, this will be &marital_stat[5], which is a
problem. Your arrays are indexed 0--4, so using an index of 5 will write
to memory you quite possibly don't have a right to write to. This will
probably cause problems; if you're lucky, only your program crashes
while the rest of your system remains running.
Also, scanf() is quite a bad function to use for live user input;
ever tried to input more than one character here? Use fgets() for any
kind of input from stdin.
Common scenario: the user enters 'f' here (or any other single
character) and then completes his input with a newline ('\n') character.
The 'f' lands in marital_stat[index], the '\n' remains in stdin.

>printf("\nPlease enter income of person # ");
>printf("%d ==>", index);
>scanf("%f", &income[index]);

The user enters 23 and terminates his input with a '\n'. scanf() ignores
the first newline in stdin, puts the 23 into income[index], then leaves
another '\n' in stdin. During the next iteration, scanf("%c",
&marital_stat[index]); (above) encounters a character in stdin and
fetches it; since that character is a newline, it looks like your
program skips the question, but in fact it behaves absolutely correcty.

> return;

return 0;

>}

What we learn from all this is the following: if you must use scanf(),
do a lot of error checking. It's better to use fgets() and then parse
the string you got with sscanf(), however.
And get an indentation style; your code is hard to read and thus hard to
debug.

Gergo

-- 
Brain, v. [as in "to brain"]:
	To rebuke bluntly, but not pointedly; to dispel a source of
error in an opponent.
		-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"

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